September 12, 2015 - 4:27 PM EAT
Somewhere in East Africa

The mission was pretty straight forward; go in, kill the insurgents in the area giving the local government problems, "de-ass" the area with the quickness. Nothing fancy. Tyler looked through the MRAP window and viewed the big city in the distance, a combination of primitive masonry and modern steel. Beyond that, for as far as a man could see, was nothing but arid desert with remnants of jungle here and there. According the eggheads in Intelligence, the enemy encampment is an approximately 1.5 hour trip from their current position. This is gonna be a long one, gents..., Tyler thought to himself. Good thing these MRAPs have air conditioning. Looking over to his left, he caught a look at his driver, PFC Velasquez. The kid looked pretty nervous.

"It helps to breathe, ya know...", Tyler said. Velasquez gave a rather bemused look. "Whaddya mean, Sergeant", he asked. "First things first, we're not in garrison; call me Tyler. Secondly, your too stressed and nothing has even happened yet. Slow, steady breathes, just like on the range." Velasquez was quiet for a few seconds and began to breathe like a novice yoga instructor. "Like that?" Tyler wasn't expecting to give feedback on breathing and gave a confused look. "Sure", he said halfheartedly. Velasquez didn't detect to sarcasm on Tyler's voice and said, "Thanks, Ser-... Tyler." This brought a smirk to Tyler's face.

26 minutes later - 4:53 PM EAT

Contact was made, but not in the way they were expecting.

"So, what do we do...?" Velasquez looked over to Tyler. "I guess we talk to him... or try to, anyway", Tyler said somewhat sheepishly. "You stay here and keep on the radio to alert the rest of the convoy in case something goes wrong." Velasquez gave a nod. Tyler exited the vehicle and gave a hand signal that meant "eyes open" to the vehicle behind them. The man was standing smack in the center of the road and about twenty paces from the MRAP. "Hey!!", Tyler shouted. "(in broken Swahili) State your intent!" He was about ten paces away, slowly and cautiously approaching. He noticed that a smell was emanating from the stranger, a smell that was stronger then the typical bad hygiene smell of the locals. He smelled like... like... Dead. This poor schmuck is fuckin' dead. He looked like he had been dead for about a day or two. His face and body showed signs of emaciation. How he was "standing" was through simply being held up by two poles holding his corpse up. The most important detail, however, was at his feet; the tip of an HE shell was slightly exposed out of the dirt. "Oh, SHIT!!!" Tyler turned back to Velasquez sitting the lead vehicle. "GET BACK!! GET BA-"

A blinding light and a deafening blast...

February 5, 2020 - 1:25 PM PST
CALMagLev Train 113, LA-NC Line

Tyler woke up with a gasp. He was in quite a state for a few moments. He gave a look around; he wasn't in Africa, he wasn't in the Marines anymore, and he wasn't dying. He gave a look at his watch. The time was 1:25 PM. About five more minutes, Tyler thought to himself. He sank back into his seat and began breathing very slowly. Remember Tyler, calm people live, tense people die...

February 3, 2020
Arasaka Private Jet, en route to NC International Airport

After years of service to the Arasaka clan tracking down traitors, stealing secrets from rival companies, and occasionally making people disappear, she never really felt nervous before embarking on a job. This was of course her first time outside of the Japanese Empire. She wasn't quite sure what to expect. The western world was much more like the pirate ridden Philippines, with plenty of crime and violence around every corner. People in the west were also considered to be rude and unsophisticated. Many rumors made the west out to be a land of disorder. Soon she would see for herself what the western world was like.

She would be landing soon and her orders were clear. First she would just be gathering information but that could lead to anything. Maria was almost as clueless about the new AI being showcased as the rest of the world. Microtech had somehow kept it secret from a clan as powerful as Arasaka which was not an easy task. If the next few days went as planned then Maria would be looking at a promotion at the very least.

February 4, 2020
Microtech R&D Building, Night City, CA.

*Cough cough* "Ugh, you'd think a sterile lab enviroment would have clean ventilation shafts..." Maria found herself trudging through dust and rat shit trying to get into the main server room for MicroTech's closed network. It was unfortunately impossible to access remotely and trying to netrun through a terminal in the labs was too risky, after all if anyone found her while she was plugged in she wouldn't know it until it was too late. That left only one option, she had to break into the main server at the main server. After several more minutes of crawling through the vents she came across a room that was colder than all the rest. It had to be what she was looking for.

After checking to see that the coast was clear she busted the vent to the room and gracefully dropped inside. An entire wall of storage and electronics housed and MicroTech's most valuable assets including their prized AI technology and soon it would belong to Arasaka. Maria sealed the door to the server room and plugged in to the server. It's decor was dreadfully mundane, if Maria were a Net Decorator she would have purged the system of this insult to architecture. Regardless she moved through the many files of irrelevant data to find what she was looking for. It was odd that such an important datafortress was so utterly unguarded, something clearly wasn't right. Finally she came across a file marked 'Project Intellect', it had to be the file! She opened it... and there was nothing. Not even so much as a trace of data having been deleted. There was never anything there, but wait. Something else was happening... A brainspike!

Maria ejected herself quickly before any damage was done but it had also set off the alarm. She had no choice but to retreat for now so no one could identify her. Quickly she made her way up through the vents and back down again through a garbage chute and ultimately back onto the street. It wasn't the most sanitary escape but she was clear of danger for now. "I guess I'll have to wait until the Expo to get anything useful, they were smart to leave a dummy database."

February 5, 2020 - 1:30 PM PST
Fujiyama-Anderson Station, Night City, CA

The train slowed down and eventually came to a complete stop. The arrival jingle played though grungy speakers. "You have arrived at Fujiyama-Anderson Station, Night City. Local time is 1330, Pacific Standard Time. Next stop, Embarcadero Station, San Francisco, departing at 1335, Pacific Standard Time. Thank you for riding CALMagLev^TM and have a nice day!" A more disingenuous automated voiced couldn't have existed anywhere in the the world. However, that was the cost of living these days; to have no life left in you.

The station was abuzz with this "life"; urban homeless, some with cardboard signs, some missing limbs; beat cops, ready to respond at a moments notice; corporate yuppies of all races with nothing but money on the mind. In the middle of all this, Tyler stood, trying to remember which way the convention center was. 6 or 7 blocks... south, I think. Yeah, south. That's pretty far in terms of walking especially on the streets of Night City. Tyler wasn't on home turf anymore and home turf isn't all that safe either. Being a police officer meant that he was able to protect himself without consequence but he couldn't call for back-up because he didn't know anyone in the NCPD. Well, here we go... This new robot better be worth it...